Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Wow that was pretty bad.....Here's what I learned 1) The AL will always triumph, because the NL is dumb. (I hope at least a few of you get that reference) 2) All-Star players looove to hit into double plays and ground ball outs of various nature. 3) Michael Young was apparently the AL Batting Champ last year. Was Ichiro dead? 4) The MVP wins a Chevy Avalanche? When Tejada won last year he got a corvette. If I was Michael Young I'd be pissed. And most important......

5) I've figured out Joe Buck and Tim McCarver:

Here's the thing....Joe Buck isn't all that bad as an announcer. He knows light-years more than Tim McCarver, and he is genuinely into the game. It's the "Disgusting Act" thing that put him over-the-top. McCarver is a different story. He's a complete dolt, and just makes things up as he goes.

You know this going in, and that's fun to make fun of. You can have McCarver'isms all day long and just shake your head at him, but it's when they get together that makes me want to cut my ears off. There's just something about the combination that just grates at the nerves and makes you physically want to harm someone or something.

With Berman you have ridiculousness, With Stephen A. you have over the top yelling, With Theisman/McCarver/Hubie Brown you have Idiocy, and with Bill Walton you have disdain. It's a very easy formula and you know what to look for going in. But with JB and Timmy Mc it's a different story. Joe Buck's smarmy attitude (which he obviously didn't get from his dad) combined with McCarver's utter ignorance of everything Baseball (funny, because he used to be a player and a pretty good one) mesh together and create something so God Awful you have to change the channel. Looking around the web today here are some of the comments I've found:

The funniest thing about Joe Buck is that he ACTS like he knows people don't like him, in order to achieve the cheap self-deprecation laughs- PostmanE (from Deadspin)

Thankfully we only had to endure Joe Buck for the telecast and not any asinine hotel commercials.- filthyfowl (from Deadspin)

Andy Mac said... Imagine if you were not a baseball fan and stumbled upon one of those Holiday Inn commercials by accident. It would be almost as disturbing for them as it is for us. WTF. (From the Comments)

I do not know what happened until the 9th inning after these events, because the middle of the game doctors were trying to remove the various long, dull objects that I was ramming into my ears.- GA Hill (From Deadspin)

You get the idea....

For some ridiculous reason the stations that broadcast the All-Star Games, Championships, etc. have decided to put the worst collection of Announcers together for the most important games. While great ones like John Miller, Marv Albert, Bob Costas, Al Michaels (did last years SB, but not this years), Gus Johnson, etc. get passed over because the "Flagship" Announcing team already HAS to be in place. Like mixing and matching would be a crime.

Just to give you a better sense of how far downhill we've gone in every major sport here are the Announcers now and who the teams were when I was younger.

There is only one case where I see an improvement and that's in NBC's Football Broadcast team. And they only real reason there's a change because ABC dropped out of the SuperBowl rotation and Michaels and Madden jumped to NBC. I'm sure if ABC still had M&M, NBC would trot out a ragtag Announcing team of Don Meredith and Melissa Stark....and Bob Costas as a sideline reporter.....but I digress.

I guess the conclusion is that no other Annoucning Troupe brings out pure hatred like these two. And now, with the recent Fox Announcement, combined with Joe's arm around McCarver and the incesant cackling as they went off air....we now know they will be with us for 7 more years.

But hey, I guess the bright side is that I have something and someone to write about for the next seven years.

32
Comments:

Excellent points, all. The Randy Moss thing always mystifies me because it glosses over the fact that the Green Bay fans moon the visitor's bus. But hey, it's something to get rile up the uninformed!! Same with Fuzzy's quip when Tiger won his first Masters about "fried chicken and collard greens". Never mind that fried chicken and collard greens is the default dinner at the Masters. Anyhoo, it's a shame that a seemingly bright guy (Buck) could let something so trivial affect his game.

I guess Jon Miller is too bald to ever get the big post-season games. Which honestly makes about as much sense as Joe Morgan's continued employment period.

first of all, I despise Joe Buck on about 200 levels, but I'd like to say something about McCarver.

In the 9th inning, Troy Glaus hit that ground rule double with a runner on first that set up Michael Young's AB. The ball hit the ground and bounced over the wall. Tim McCarver actually called this a break for the AMERICAN league. His reasoning was that the ball would have bounced right back to the fielder and then he could have held Glaus to a single and the run still wouldn't have scored (though the runner was going hard with 2 outs), I guess. That's assuming a good bounce and throw.

Now... I never caught Bob Gibson or Steve Carlton, and I've seen probably 10% as many games as McCarver, but I have never heard of the team at bat being helped by a ground rule double instead of the ball carroming around. Never.

I think that the announcers have fallen prey to the sell mentality (for lack of a better phrase). Nothing exists in a vacuum anymore. Jack Buck can't just call the game; Neither can Walter Cronkite just give you the news. Now everything has to be part of a promotion. If you're not selling the product, even if the product is your own broadcast, you're doing it wrong. And I think for a lot of announcers that means being intentionally over-dramatic ("a disgusting act!") because somehow it's gotten into everyone's head that controversy sells.

The worst part for me is as horribly horrendous as Buck and McCarver are, they're still a relief after that pre-game show.

Is there anyone more annoying in sports than Jeannie Selazko (or however you spell her frickin' name). I can't even stand her voice anymore, I mute it when she does in-game updates. And Kevin Kennedy is at best unobtrusive. Why does Fox keep forcing these people on us??

I didn't even watch the All-Star game, please tell me though..did they at least not use Scooter this time? F'in punk baseball

As much as people dislike Buck, he is sure as hell better (for the NFL) than that old malfunctioning robot Summerall. That idiot was apparently programmed not to change the level of excitement in his voice whether it was a 90 yard touchdown or a 2 yard gain.

DC- You bring up a good point about Summerall, but I almost preferred that older style. You would have one straight-laced guy as the main announcer and one/two crazy color guys (hence the definition of Color Commentator). Summerall had Madden, Al Michaels had Cossell, and Keith Jackson has whoever they decide to put in the booth with him.

Buck and McCarver are such tards that they talk over each other and have zero sense of timing.

In the 9th inning, Troy Glaus hit that ground rule double with a runner on first that set up Michael Young's AB. The ball hit the ground and bounced"

i heard the same thing and considered slamming my head in the door multiple times due to his ignorance. BUT he did restate his logic a 2nd time and did point out, correctly, that it was a break for the nl.

darthmoridin: I'm not saying it never happened, but I am darn sick and tired of hearing about Green Bay fans mooning other team's buses. I have attended games at Lambeau Field since 1967 and have never seen it, as a fan or as a reporter, and I have never heard any players mention it until the Moss incident. Just once, I'd like to see some proof, rather than comments from a bunch of scofflaws in football uniforms.

Look at all these new folks experiencing the world of Awful Announcing. Stick around, there's plenty of press box idiocy about which to bitch. You'll often find me in the comment section talking about religious sects with barnstorming baseball teams and other off-topics.

McCarver talks too much, but he's damn smart. Have we all forgotten the '01 Series, where he essentially called Luis Gonzalez' jam shot? If McCarver had been managing the Yanks, they might have won that Series.

He also said something interesting in the All-Star game--that when a fastball pitcher is pitching, a catcher's hands get progressively more sore throughout the course of a game. So that by the late innings, his hands can barely grip the bat. Never knew that.

I personally think the recent Sunday night football announcing team of Theisman, Mike Patrick and Paul McGuire are the worst crew of all time. Mike Patrick by himself is terrible, and then adding on Theisman and McGuire pushes them way over the top. For my money Mike Patrick is one of the worst announcers in sports: his college basketball is just as bad as his football. I obviously could go on and on, but first I will list a few of my favorite announcers:Marv AlbertCliff DrysdaleLen ElmoreHubie Brownearly 90s Madden

You know what. I wish ESPN had done the All-Star Game. Sure you can't take them as seriously as the Fox Crew, but this is the All-Star game, not the World Series. The ESPN crew tends to have more entertaining personalities and I wish they were covering this game.

The worst two moments of the All-Star game:

1. The Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes song. At least in the past, the talking baseball aka Scooter actually explained certain pitches in detail. What the hell was the point of the HSKT song?

2. When Mariano Rivera came in to close the 9th, Tim McCarver exclaims, "Those of you who don't know Mariano Rivera..." Seriously, is that a joke? If you don't know who Rivera is than why would you even be watching the All-Star game?

It's not that all of you have expectations that are too high, it's that you have expectations at all.There are so few good announcers, and I can't remember the last time I heard a well-called nationally broadcast game. In any sport.You know who IS good? Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen doing the Tour de France.And those two Canadian guys who did the curling during the Olympics. I think they're both named Gord. Or something French.

As a Dodger fan I can't imagine baseball without Vin Scully - he's pushing 90 and he's still better than everyone else ever in the world ever ever ever. Maybe they can create some kind of animatronic thing when he's gone.

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